Considered one of the worst Royal Rumble pay-per-views of all time, the event is notable for the overwhelmingly negative audience response to the Orton–Cena and Royal Rumble matches. The fans booed Royal Rumble winner Batista in protest and chanted for Bryan (who was not part of the match) and runner-up Reigns, though the Bryan–Wyatt match was praised. The event marked the final WWE appearance of CM Punk, who abruptly left the company on bad terms the following day and retired from wrestling for the next seven-and-a-half years; he then joined AEW at The First Dance in August 2021, returned to WWE at Survivor Series in November 2023, and competed in his first WWE match in a decade at the Royal Rumble in January 2024.
The event received 467,000 buys, down 8.8% from the 512,000 buys for the previous year's event.
The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmickpay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four".[3] It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 2014 event was the 27th event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 26, 2014, at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which opened in August 2010 replacing the former Mellon Arena, making the first WWE pay-per-view held in this venue, although the arena was originally going to host the 2012 Survivor Series.[4] On the final episode of Raw before the Royal Rumble event, Batista returned to WWE after an absence of nearly four years,[5] and the Royal Rumble match was scheduled to be his first return match.[6][7][8]
The event comprised five matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.[12][13]
A highly promoted match featured WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defending the title against long-time adversary John Cena. At Survivor Series in November 2013, Orton successfully defended his WWE Championship against Big Show,[14] on the same night the World Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio to retain his title.[15] After Orton's victory at Survivor Series, Cena came down to the ring with his title, and celebrated with the crowd as The Authority (Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Kane) looked on, much to Orton's chagrin.[14] The next month, at the TLC pay-per-view, Orton defeated Cena in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to unify the two titles into the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[16] On the December 30 episode of Raw, Cena was awarded a rematch for the title against Orton at the Royal Rumble, with the match stipulation of a traditional one-on-one singles match, except that it could be won by pinfall or submission only.[17] On the January 13 episode of Raw, Orton suffered an upset loss to Kofi Kingston and took out his frustrations by attacking Cena's father, who was attending the event at ringside.[18]
On the December 30, 2013, episode of Raw, Brock Lesnar returned with his manager, Paul Heyman, to announce his intentions to challenge the winner of the upcoming WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Randy Orton and John Cena at the Royal Rumble.[17] Lesnar then dared any wrestler who disapproved of that notion to challenge him, which was answered by Mark Henry, and a brawl would ensue, ending with Lesnar delivering an F-5 to Henry.[17] The following week on Raw, Henry challenged Lesnar again, only to have Lesnar dislocate his elbow with the Kimura lock in storyline, which led Big Show to come out afterwards to confront Lesnar.[19] On the January 10 episode of SmackDown, Big Show issued a challenge to Lesnar, Paul Heyman accepting on behalf of Lesnar and scheduling the match for the Royal Rumble event.[20]
On the October 28, 2013, episode of Raw, The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan) attacked Daniel Bryan backstage, which ignited a feud between the two.[23] The next month at Survivor Series, Bryan teamed with CM Punk and defeated Harper and Rowan.[24] The rivalry between Bryan and the Wyatt Family continued in December, as the latter defeated the former in a 3-on-1 handicap match at TLC,[25] with Wyatt attempting to recruit Bryan in the previous weeks.[26] On the December 30, 2013, episode of Raw, Bryan defeated Harper and then Rowan in a gauntlet match so that he could face Wyatt, whereupon Harper and Rowan interfered for a disqualification and beat him down, before announcing he would join the Wyatt Family.[17] However, on the January 13, 2014, episode of Raw (after Bryan and Bray Wyatt were defeated by Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso in a Steel Cage match), Bryan betrayed Wyatt and attacked him, culminating with Bryan hitting his flying knee finishing maneuver on Wyatt.[18] The following week on Raw, Bryan explained that his joining the Wyatts was a ruse to infiltrate the stable and bide his time to strike, and that he would wrestle Wyatt at the Royal Rumble event.[27]
In the pre-show, Goldust and Cody Rhodes defended the WWE Tag Team Championship against The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn]). Towards the end of the match, Rhodes applied a dropkick to Dogg, but was unaware that Gunn blind-tagged in for the latter. From the back, Gunn entered the ring and delivered a Fame-Ass-er to Rhodes, to win the match and the titles for the Outlaws.[28]
Preliminary matches
In the first match on the pay-per-view portion of the show, Bray Wyatt faced Daniel Bryan. Early in the match, the referee saw Bray's Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan attempting to interfere, so he ejected them from ringside. During the match, Wyatt targeted Bryan's head, ramming it into the ring-post. Bryan later mounted a comeback with a running tornado DDT off the ring apron, planting Wyatt's head on the floor. Wyatt managed to escape Bryan's Yes! Lock submission hold by biting Bryan's hand. To avoid Bryan's running knee, Wyatt rolled out of the ring to the floor. Bryan then attempted a suicide dive but Wyatt caught him and executed a Sister Abigail into the barricade. After another Sister Abigail in the ring, Wyatt scored the pinfall victory.[29][30][31]
In the next match, Brock Lesnar (accompanied by Paul Heyman) faced Big Show. Lesnar attacked Big Show before the match started, and then hit him with a chair. When the match started, Big Show landed his KO Punch, but Lesnar picked up the victory after executing an F-5. Lesnar then continued to attack Big Show with a chair after the match.[29][30][31]
In the penultimate match, Randy Orton defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena. After both wrestlers failed to win despite executing their RKO, Attitude Adjustment, and STF moves, both wrestlers resorted to using their opponent's signature moves but still could not win the match. At the end of the match, Cena again trapped Orton in the STF submission hold, but the lights temporarily went out due to the arrival of The Wyatt Family on the ring apron. Orton took advantage of the distraction to drop Cena with the RKO to pin him and win the match.[29][31][32]
The main event was the Royal Rumble match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXX. CM Punk and Seth Rollins were entrants #1 and #2; they spent the longest and second longest time in the entire match (49 and 48 minutes respectively). Kane entered at #5 and targeted Punk, but Punk managed to eliminate him. NXT's Alexander Rusev entered at #6. Kofi Kingston, who entered at #8, had two feats of athleticism to escape elimination; first after he was deposited on the guardrail by Rusev (who caught him when Kingston was thrown out of the ring) he jumped back to the ring apron from the guardrail, and later while he was hanging on to the bottom rope with his feet, he fended off Jack Swagger by snatching Swagger's boot and hitting him with it.
Rollins' Shield teammates (Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns) entered at #11 and #15 respectively. Goldust eliminated his brother Cody Rhodes 24 minutes into the match, and was in turn eliminated by Reigns, who had also eliminated Kingston and unannounced entrant Kevin Nash, amongst others. Midway through the match with only Punk and the Shield left in the ring, Sheamus returned to WWE television at #17 and momentarily stopped the Shield's dominance. Los Matadores' mascot El Torito entered at #20, and managed to eliminate Fandango, before being eliminated in turn by Reigns. Pay-per-view commentator John "Bradshaw" Layfield was announced as entrant #24, making it the first time the JBL character had participated in a Royal Rumble. He was eliminated by Reigns while handing his jacket to fellow commentator Michael Cole, whereupon he resumed his commentator role for the rest of the match.
Batista entered at #28 and quickly eliminated Erick Rowan, Ryback and Alberto Del Rio. The final entrant at #30 was Rey Mysterio, who was eliminated by Rollins. When Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, Reigns retaliated by eliminating Ambrose, Rollins and Antonio Cesaro simultaneously, leaving himself, Punk, Sheamus and Batista as the final four. Though already eliminated, Kane returned to ringside and pulled Punk over the top rope to eliminate him, then executed a chokeslam through a broadcast table on Punk. Reigns eliminated Sheamus to set a new record for most eliminations in a Rumble match with 12, but Reigns was then thrown over the top rope by Batista, who won the match.[29][31][33]
Reception
The event sold out the Consol Energy Center with 15,715 people in attendance.[1] The official buy total for the 2014 Royal Rumble event was 467,000, which was a decrease of 8.8% from the 512,000 of the previous year's event, but a 5.4% increase from the 443,000 of the 2012 event. This contributed to WWE's PPV revenue of $13.8 million for the first quarter of 2014 compared with $15.1 million for the first quarter of 2013.[2] The 2015 Royal Rumble event received 145,000 purchases, a significant drop from the 2014 event, due to the fact that the latter was held prior to the launch of the WWE Network.[34]
The negative reaction of the fans attending the event in Pittsburgh was so great that it was reported as one of the major news items coming out of the show,[29][35][36][37] and described as the live audience engineering a "takeover" of the final two hours of the show.[36][38] During the title match between John Cena and Randy Orton, fans booed both men and chanted for Daniel Bryan, amongst other chants such as "this is awful".[39] The fans continued to chant for Bryan during the Royal Rumble match and so when Rey Mysterio (typically a fan favorite) was revealed as the final entrant (and therefore Bryan's possible participation in the match was ruled out) the fans booed Mysterio, chanted for Bryan and cheered Mysterio's eventual elimination.[33][39][40] The crowd continued to boo when there were three wrestlers left in the match, but when only Batista and Roman Reigns remained, they cheered for Reigns (a villainous character at the time) over Batista and later booed Batista's victory as the event drew to a close.[33][39][40] After the show went off the air, Batista (who had been presented on-air as a heroic babyface character) mocked Bryan and gestured his middle finger at the crowd.[40][41] Aaron Oster of The Baltimore Sun wrote Mysterio "received more boos than he's ever had in his WWE career", and in the case of Batista, "besides the fact that a supposed face was getting booed, the boos were stronger than any Rumble winner I can remember, including when Mr. McMahon won in 1999".[35]
Fans took to social media to display their displeasure towards the event. The BBC reported that regarding Bryan's exclusion from the Rumble match, "many people have also expressed anger on social media, with the phrases #RoyalRumble, #WWE and Daniel Bryan all trending on Twitter".[42][43] The Herald & Review described the reaction to the event as "WWE's PR nightmare", with the most "liked" comments on WWE's Facebook page within 24 hours of the event including "worst PPV ever", "the sound of WWE dropping the ball" and in reference to the WWE Network, "no Bryan, no buy".[44] Retired wrestler Mick Foley criticized WWE management on social media, stating, "Does WWE actually hate their own audience? I've never been so disgusted with a PPV".[42][43]
Dale Plummer and Nick Tylwalk of Canoe.ca rated the overall event as 6.0 out of 10. The Wyatt-Bryan bout was rated the highest at a "fantastic" 9.5 out of 10, the Cena-Orton bout, described as a "sloppy affair that won’t go down among the best work from either man" received 4.0 out of 10, while the Lesnar-Big Show encounter received 1.0 out of 10. They described the event as "uneven", and that "the disapproval of the fans at the Consol Energy Center at how the Royal Rumble match went down will be the lasting memory for anyone who watched the show".[29]
James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter rated the Royal Rumble match 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting that "well, that back-fired". He wrote that the "Rumble peaked about three-fourths through, then fell off the table at the end", and described the Rumble winner Batista as "out-of-shape".[33] Caldwell also rated the Bryan-Wyatt match 4.0 stars out of 5, describing it as "easily Bray's best WWE TV match, great chemistry from both wrestlers" in front of a "hot, invested crowd". Caldwell chose not to rate the Lesnar-Show match, commenting that it was necessarily short due to Show being injured going into the match.[30] Lastly, Caldwell rated the Orton-Cena title match 2.0 stars out of 5.[32]
Benjamin Tucker, who attended the event and is also from the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter, rated the entire event 6.0 out of 10, saying "the show began great but slowly lost steam before ending in a roar of jeers". For the Rumble match, Tucker said that "the first two-thirds especially were exciting, with several wrestlers being spotlighted well", "until lower-level players kept coming out in the final half of the match". Tucker felt that "Roman Reigns was the star of the match, even outclassing Batista. Where Batista stumbled around the ring like... well, an old, retired wrestler, Roman Reigns looked like an absolute monster". For the opening match, Tucker felt that the "deliberate pace didn't hurt the match in the slightest. Instead, it allowed Bray to keep using his character while in a competitive, big match situation". For the rest of the matches, Tucker wrote that "Lesnar looked like a relentless beast", while "Orton and Cena put on their most lifeless performance ever together. There was very little story to the match" and "no creativity at all".[38]
The following year's Royal Rumble was similarly marked by an extreme negative audience reaction towards the Rumble match and its winner, which some media outlets described as being even worse than the 2014 event.[45][46] When Daniel Bryan was eliminated in the first half of the match, the crowd repeatedly chanted his name for the second half of the match while booing other wrestlers making their entrance to the match, including eventual winner Roman Reigns.[47][48] Reigns, who had been portrayed as a heroic character, was booed after winning the main event, even after he received The Rock's endorsement,[47] and The Rock was heckled for helping Reigns.[48] Also, many fans took to social media to display their displeasure at Bryan's elimination and the winner of the Rumble match.[48]
Aftermath
CM Punk did not appear and was not mentioned in any WWE event after the Royal Rumble until November 2023.
After the Royal Rumble event, CM Punk did not appear and was not mentioned on Raw the next day.[49][50] Despite being advertised for the SmackDown taping on Tuesday, he also did not appear in front of the live audience.[49][50] By Wednesday, WWE.com stopped advertising Punk for future events.[49][50] It was reported by the Wrestling Observer that on Monday prior to Raw, Punk had legitimately walked out on WWE when he informed Vince McMahon that he was "going home".[49][50] On February 20, McMahon indicated to investors that Punk was "taking a sabbatical".[51][52] However, in an interview published in late May, Punk indicated that he had retired; he was questioned "How does it feel to be retired at 35?" and replied with "It feels good."[53] Punk's WWE contract subsequently expired in July 2014, thus making the Royal Rumble his final on-screen appearance.[54]
However, on an episode of Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestlingpodcast released in November 2014, Punk said that he was suspended for two months after walking out on the company in January and that after the suspension ended, nobody from WWE contacted him. Punk also told that when he reached out to them for unpaid royalties, he was given a run-around by company executives until he was handed his termination papers and was fired by WWE on his wedding day with April Mendez (better known as AJ Lee) in June 2014.[55] The manner of firing was the last straw for Punk, stating that he would never return to WWE and that following a legal settlement with WWE there would be no further working relationship between them. The settlement included Punk giving WWE permission to sell his remaining merchandise.[56] Punk subsequently signed a contract to compete in the UFC in 2015.[57][58] Punk had not appeared on WWE programming since then, though he did have multiple appearances on WWE Backstage, a show broadcast by Fox Sports, who had a television deal with WWE.[59] However, on August 20, 2021, Punk returned to professional wrestling when he signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) during The First Dance edition of its weekly program Rampage.[60] After Punk left AEW in August 2023, he returned to WWE that November at Survivor Series: WarGames.[61]
The post-Rumble Raw on January 27 began with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (The Authority) addressing the Rumble event and mocking the audience for not getting what they wanted. When Daniel Bryan came out and confronted them about not being inserted into the Rumble match, and then demanded to be inserted into the Elimination Chamber match and refused to leave the ring until they did, he was attacked by the Shield, but was then saved by John Cena and Sheamus. As a result, Bryan, Cena and Sheamus later teamed together to take on the Shield in a 6-man tag match in which all three members of the winning team qualified to participate in the Elimination Chamber match (in which Randy Orton would defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship) at the eponymous pay-per-view. During that match, The Wyatt Family interfered, causing the Shield to be disqualified and thus Bryan, Cena and Sheamus qualified for the Chamber match.[62][63]Cesaro and a returning Christian also qualified for the Chamber match by defeating Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger respectively.[64] For costing them the spots in the Chamber match, the Shield vowed revenge against the Wyatt Family, which set up a match between the groups at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.[64]
At Elimination Chamber, Randy Orton retained his WWE World Heavyweight Championship by winning the Elimination Chamber match against Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Cesaro, Christian and Sheamus.[65] During the Elimination Chamber match, the Wyatt Family once again interfered to cause Cena's elimination from the match.[65] Also at Elimination Chamber, Batista defeated Alberto Del Rio, with the negative audience reaction to Batista continuing, even prompting the audience to cheer Del Rio. Meanwhile, Bray Wyatt was victorious once again with the Wyatt Family defeating the Shield.[65]
Daniel Bryan closed WrestleMania XXX by celebrating his win of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Because of the boisterous negative reaction, Batista responded to the audience on the February 28 episode of SmackDown, saying he didn't come back to be liked, only to be the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion, thus turning into a villain in the process.[66] The scheduled WrestleMania XXX main event was Orton versus Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[67] However, on the March 10 episode of Raw, Bryan and multiple fans "occupied" the ring and refused to leave, resulting in an irate Triple H agreeing to Bryan's demand for a match at WrestleMania, with the stipulation that the winner would be inserted into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at the event.[68] At WrestleMania, Bryan was added to the match after defeating Triple H in the opening contest of the show, and would ultimately win the triple threat match, forcing Batista to submit and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[69][70] On May 12, Daniel Bryan announced that due to injuries, he would require neck surgery,[71] which he underwent on May 15.[72] Bryan was stripped of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by the Authority on June 9 as he was not healthy enough to defend his championship.[73]
Cody Rhodes and Goldust failed to regain the WWE Tag Team Championship from The New Age Outlaws on the post-Rumble Raw, as the match ended in no contest after Brock Lesnar attacked Rhodes and Goldust.[62] The following week, they received another rematch for the titles in a steel cage match, which the Outlaws won.[74] The Outlaws' reign ended on the March 3 episode of Raw, when The Usos won the Tag Team Championship.[75]
Following Elimination Chamber, Wyatt feuded with Cena, with Wyatt wanting to prove that Cena's heroic act was a facade characteristic of "this era of lies" while also trying to turn Cena into a "monster".[76][77] Wyatt went on to accept Cena's challenge for a match at WrestleMania XXX,[78] which Cena won despite interference from Luke Harper and Erick Rowan.[79] In May at Extreme Rules, Wyatt defeated Cena in a steel cage match, after repeated interference from the rest of The Wyatt Family and a "demonic" child.[80] Their feud ended at Payback on June 1, where, in a Last Man Standing match, Cena buried Wyatt under multiple equipment cases to win the match.[81] Cena won the vacated WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank on June 29.[82]
On the February 24 episode of Raw, Brock Lesnar and his manager Paul Heyman voiced their complaints about Lesnar not being in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. Instead, the Authority offered Lesnar a contract to face anyone else at WrestleMania. They were interrupted by a returning Undertaker, who confronted Lesnar. While Lesnar signed the contract for a match at WrestleMania with The Undertaker as his opponent, The Undertaker accepted Lesnar's challenge by stabbing Lesnar with a pen and chokeslamming him through a table.[83][84] This set up a match where Lesnar would attempt to break the Undertaker's 21–0 undefeated streak at WrestleMania.[85] Lesnar defeated Undertaker after executing three F5s, thus ending the streak.[70] In August 2014, Lesnar defeated John Cena at SummerSlam, capturing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the process.[86]
Glenn Thomas Jacobs, also known by his ring name Kane, is an American politician, actor and professional wrestler. He rose to fame in WWE and is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of his generation. In 2018, he became the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American actor and professional wrestler. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE since 2001, but has performed part-time since 2018. A record 16-time world champion as recognized by WWE alongside Ric Flair, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
Randal Keith Orton is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in history, and a career spanning over 20 years.
Bryan Lloyd Danielson is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former AEW World Champion. He is also known for his tenure on WWE, where he performed under the ring name Daniel Bryan from 2010 to 2021. Noted for his technical wrestling style and popularity with fans, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoaʻi, better known by his ring name Roman Reigns, is an American professional wrestler and former football player. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. He is the leader of the babyface iteration of The Bloodline stable and a member of the Anoaʻi family. Reigns's title reign of 1,316 days as Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion was the fourth-longest world title reign in WWE history and the longest championship reign since 1988. He is widely regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers currently active in the world, and by some as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
The 2010 Royal Rumble was the 23rd annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on January 31, 2010, at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2010 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship, or the ECW Championship at WrestleMania XXVI—this was the last Royal Rumble in which the ECW Championship was an option as the ECW brand was disbanded in February, also deactivating the title, thus also being WWE's last PPV to include the ECW brand.
Windham Lawrence Rotunda, better known by his ring name Bray Wyatt, was an American professional wrestler best known for his tenures in WWE from 2009 until his death in 2023.
WrestleMania XXX was the 30th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on April 6, 2014, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana and was the first WWE event simultaneously broadcast live on PPV and livestreamed on WWE's subscription streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched in February. WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan served as the host of the event.
WrestleMania XXVIII was the 28th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 1, 2012, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The 2012 Extreme Rules was the fourth annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 29, 2012, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It included Brock Lesnar's first WWE in-ring match since WrestleMania XX in 2004. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches.
The 2013 Elimination Chamber was the fourth Elimination Chamber professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on February 17, 2013, at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Team Hell No was a professional wrestling tag team in WWE consisting of Kane and Daniel Bryan. The team's name is a reference to the two wrestlers' personas: Kane is portrayed as a violent pyromaniac and described as "The Devil's Favorite Demon" while Bryan's character at the time of their original formation was that of a spiteful pessimist whose catchphrase was to loudly exclaim "No!". Originally portrayed as bitter enemies, the two were forced to work as a team during an angle in which they were made to attend anger management classes by then Raw General Manager AJ Lee and—though billed as a dysfunctional team—they were subsequently able to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
The Shield was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. Their original characters were mercenaries for CM Punk; however, they quickly became mainstay main-event names. The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29. In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship. As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.
The 2014 Elimination Chamber was the fifth Elimination Chamber professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. The event took place on February 23, 2014, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was WWE's final PPV to air before the launch of their online streaming service, the WWE Network, on February 24; following its launch, the events began to be simultaneously broadcast on PPV and livestreamed on the WWE Network.
The Wyatt Family was an American professional wrestling stable in WWE originally composed of Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, and Luke Harper.
The 2015 Royal Rumble was the 28th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on January 25, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the second Royal Rumble held at this venue after the 2004 event, when it was formerly known as Wachovia Center; the arena changed its name to Wells Fargo Center in 2010. It was also the first Royal Rumble to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2015 event, the winner received a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31.
The 2014 Payback was the second annual Payback professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on June 1, 2014, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois for the second consecutive year. This was also the first Payback event to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February. The theme of the event was wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents.
The Authority was a villainous professional wrestling stable in WWE, which originated due to Triple H helping Randy Orton win the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan at the 2013 SummerSlam pay-per-view immediately after cashing in the Money in the Bank contract. The name of "The Authority" was introduced on October 7, 2013 on Raw during a match between The Shield vs Cody Rhodes, Goldust and Daniel Bryan. Jerry Lawler first said "The Authority" during that match. The Authority initially referred to only Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as a power couple. The Authority shares similarities with The Corporation and The McMahon-Helmsley Faction, and also had ties to Triple H's previous stables D-Generation X (DX) and Evolution, the latter of which existed alongside The Authority for a brief period in 2014.
WrestleMania 31 was the 31st annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on March 29, 2015, at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Santa Clara, California.
The Reality Era is an era of professional wrestling within World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which began approximately early 2014 through May 1, 2016. It succeeded the previous PG Era.
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